Most endangered fish species receive little attention.

The fish species most at risk of extinction often receive the least attention from the public and scientists. This is evident from one Interest analysis For more than 2,400 species of fish that live on coral reefs around the world. The results were published in the scientific journal Science advances.

The public pays most attention to species that look beautiful and do well in the aquarium, and scientists often focus on species that are important to fisheries. The least attention is given to fish species listed on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

The public pays a lot of attention, for example, to the colorful blue mandarin fish and the ray-finned fish Pseudanthias pleurotaenia. There is a lot of interest among scientists in the perch Lutjanus gutatus. For example, the public and scientists spend much less time and energy on the small endangered fish Aioliops brachypterus.

“Our idea of ​​biodiversity is essentially defined by what animals can do for us,” writes researcher Nicolas Mouquet. Recognizing this bias is a first step toward abandoning it, he argues.

Previous research has shown that even among wild animals, little attention is paid to the most endangered species. Most eyes are on large animals like pandas, elephants and rhinoceroses and less on animals that are also important to ecosystems, like reptiles, amphibians and insects.

Biologist Manon de Visser of Naturalis and Leiden University, who was not involved in the study, acknowledges the findings. “This problem is called”retention bias‘We humans often pay more attention to animals that look like us or that we find very beautiful. As a result, we unconsciously ignore other important species that need help. This is shameful and harmful to biodiversity.’

You might expect scientists to put their own preferences aside in their research, but that’s not always the case. “Scientists are also people with feelings and preferences,” says de Visser. “Moreover, it can sometimes be easier to get funding for research on ‘popular’ animals, or species that serve an economic interest. Fortunately, there are also many experts who are committed to less popular species.”

De Visser says this research underscores how important it is to put these less popular species in the spotlight. Education is crucial to that, she says. “We need to learn that all species play a unique role in nature, and that we depend on healthy ecosystems. Let’s work together to ensure that even individual species don’t go extinct.”